EMC Reports Record Quarter, Driven by Cloud Storage

Tuesday

Jan 24, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 24, 2012 at 3:20 AM

It was the latest set of strong results from the technology industry.

James Rogers

HOPKINTON, Mass. (TheStreet) -- Storage maker EMC(:EMC) posted record fourth-quarter revenue and profit, powered by a push in cloud computing. It was the latest technology company to report strong results.

EMC, which reported its results in the wake of strong numbers from IBM(:IBM), Microsoft(:MSFT), Intel(:INTC) and Texas Instruments(:TXN), brought in consolidated revenue of $5.6 billion, an increase of 14% from a year earlier and just above analysts' estimate of $5.57 billion.

Excluding items, EMC earned 49 cents a share on net income of $1.07 billion, gains of 17% and 16%, respectively. The company's earnings were in line with Wall Street's estimates.

For the full year, EMC had revenue of $20 billion, a hike of 18%, and also in line with analysts' estimates.

"EMC had a strong and record-breaking 2011," said Joe Tucci, the EMC CEO, in a statement. "There's no doubt that cloud computing is completely transforming the IT industry and that Big Data promises to have a similarly profound effect on transforming the way we work and live."

"Big Data" refers to large volume, loosely structured data that could be generated, for example, in areas such as Web Search, and has become something of an EMC mantra in recent years.

For the coming fiscal year, IBM expects revenue of $22 billion, in line with analysts' estimate of $22.02 billion.

Investors responded positively to the fourth-quarter and guidance, pushing EMC's shares up 61 cents, or 2.6%, to $24.05 in pre-market trading.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/jamesjrogers.